


The Little Chicks

by AikoIsari



Category: Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Magical Realism, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 02:33:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 9,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12379068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AikoIsari/pseuds/AikoIsari
Summary: Saber isn't gone. So with nothing better to do, Kiritsugu goes on a child saving spree. It's not like Saber disagrees. Well, the methods, she might disagree with. Or him. That's equally possible.





	1. Like A Common Thief

Einzbern Castle, like the homes of many great and powerful mages, was a heavily warded fortress. Held safe by the natural elements, the magic buried in its structure, and the homunculi bound to it, it would be very difficult to simply walk into and leave.

That is if one were a mere human or even a mere magus.

Coated in a divine, or perhaps paternal fury, King Artoria cut through the Bounded Field like paper to kid scissors. If Emiya Kiritsugu had been there, he would have found it entertaining. Alas, he was far enough from the castle to where he could be of use, but it would take quite a bit of effort to do so.

The plan, nay, idea, was simple. Get his daughter, cause a little mayhem, and then depart. It had none of the man's cool efficiency which was incredibly unsurprising after the incident, but it did have his familiar sense of purpose. She supposed she could take the latter, even if she did not know why it had suddenly taken more to the forefront. She could discuss it later, she supposed, when the two important matters had been completed.

The guards –homunculi, after Irisviel, it was difficult to not see them as people- met her with magic and a significant lack of emotion. Not even raising her blade made them flinch. If anything, it only seemed to make them move faster, and pile up further.

The line of Saber's mouth twisted into a frown. She had known this would be difficult-

_How many bodies have you piled up until now, oh mighty King?_

To do her way, but… she must have underestimated the Einzbern family. Seeing as they had stooped, as many magi would find ludicrous, to obtaining murderous outsiders for assistance, how desperate and weak they must be.

She couldn't help but recall a face torn into a desperate smile of fangs and teeth.

Artoria really should have known better.

So, with a soft exhale, and prana at her hands, Saber threw herself forward, ready to cut down all, until her target appeared at the top of the golden, ornate stairs.

"Saber?"

Though the glimpse had been brief, Heroic Spirits left an impression no magic, not even time, could negate.

For a moment, Saber considered kneeling, as was fitting for a knight, even for the King of Knights. Seeing as she was dispersing mana creations with short parries, she settled for a nod. "Yes, Lady Ilyasviel. I am here to take you home. Your father is waiting."

* * *

When he had asked, she ought to have refused.

Kiritsugu had taken her wish from her, pried it with her own fingers, and his hollow eyes would still tell her nothing. In fact, if it hadn't been for the child sleeping a room apart, she would have quite likely sliced off his own head, heedless of the pain it would cause him, or even the lack of it.

Well, that and the simple revelation he gave her when he had asked for his favors-

"I'm dying, Saber."

Spoken like he had bought milk, or skipped a stone far into the water. Even though it probably meant everything to him. It was clearly supposed to mean nothing to her.

That stung in her facsimile of a heart.


	2. Someone Melting Snow

_You're still here._

_I shouldn't be._

_Probably not. But we must make the most of it, our time left._

Artoria once would have been disturbed by the sight of a small girl telling soldiers with weapons to stand down and let her pass. But then, she had been made to do so once herself. Sometimes those with no power would simply have all of it and not even notice. She would have to make a note of that to tell Kiritsugu. A spoiled child would not be able to handle him dying, not even the spoiled child of a magus. That was just being intelligent.

Even with her vague, forcibly imported knowledge of magus culture, Artoria was hating every second of it. Morgan would enjoy it though. It had always been her favorite thing to watch people manipulate each other into murder. It was really quite disgusting.

She swallowed, watching the little girl smartly pack every little thing into a too small sack. It was likely magus technology. They were never allowed to be flatfooted. Then she paused, expecting something from nothing. But there was no Justabach, no more homunculi or even golems. It was similar to surrender. But it couldn't be. Kiritsugu had warned her, they did not surrender.

But he had also said they were opportunistic. What opportunity would come from letting one of their greatest subjects be taken away?

Perhaps the truth of it was that they were good people, or one good person with some extra souls laying around for an extra bit of morality. Perhaps the Magus Killer had done more to her than she had realized, but Saber couldn't even believe herself.

As she felt the gaze on her again, Saber turned to the door.

"May I recommend haste, Illyasviel?"

"Ilya." The correction was as absentminded as every time Irisviel had forgotten her shoes. Saber swallowed a lump at the thought. "Why?"

"I am being watched. And your father's time is limited."

"Everyone's is." She shoved another book into her bag, followed by the softest sheets Saber could remember existing. "But okay!"

There was bitter and pretending to be nonchalant. And there was also indoctrinated. The line was easy to straddle and she was relatively certain that this little one was doing so.

"It's a long story, I believe," Saber decided to say. "I have yet to understand the ending."

Ilya nodded, shutting her bag with an audible snap. "Then let's ask him together!"

It was difficult to smile but Saber allowed herself the luxury. Even young mages could be filled with some hope and innocence despite knowing the reality of war, if Kiritsugu had told her. He must have. After all, no matter the outcome, Irisviel von Einzbern would never have returned.

But she did not say so as Ilya approached with her bag in hand. Saber drew Excalibur once more and shattered the glass. It would be much more polite to go through the front door, but then, that wouldn't be safe, would it?


	3. A Tally Count

Emiya Kiritsugu threw the cigarette pack into the trash, again. Then he picked it back up and dropped it once more. It was a good thing Shiro wasn't here to scold him about it without understanding what it was really about. That was a relief.

Shiro knew the basics of what was going on: Saber, who had mysteriously remained, Ilya, his birth daughter who had to be saved like him and-

He had taken the victory from so many. The least he could do was offer salvation to the families he had taken from. Not to mention the silence was so heavy from the Third Great Family. There were two people left of the Tohsaka now, and one was an invalid, medically speaking. The other was a child… and he was having suspicions about that as well.

Kiritsugu rubbed the jetlag from his eyes and dropped the pack once more. Mana throbbed out of his temples as Saber arrived once more. His eyes sparkled ever so faintly at the sight of white hair that was a shade lighter, eyes much brighter. Still adoring, still innocent in a way that Iri had not-

"Papa!" She was on top of him within seconds of seeing her, breaking free of the heroic spirit to scramble over him and squeeze-

And cry. Well, he'd expected one of those. Kiritsugu swallowed the lump in his stomach, the weight in his chest tying into a knot as his fingers scrambled, insectlike, over her thick coat and wrapped around both sides of her ribs. Then he allowed one to reach her hair. In front of them, Saber deposited the bag next to the fallen fur hat.

He murmured an apology, though he wasn't sure what it would be for. Being gone and taking so long to return, for killing the woman they both cared for, for birthing her at all, for dying beneath her hands?

Admittedly, the last one was slightly dramatic, but Kiritsugu was starting to realize he was a bit dramatic. It was one of his many, many flaws.

Unfortunately, one of his other more prominent ones was acknowledging that he was a rightfully paranoid individual. "Saber."

There was a pause, too long for a Heroic Spirit, but enough. "We must go, Ilyasviel."

His little girl grumbled something into the now wet fabric of his shirt. Likely annoyance at the full name bequeathed upon by Jubstacheit. But he couldn't be certain. Besides, it was honestly too amusing to see his daughter's personality flare forth. No matter how else they had altered her. "Where?"

"Home," he said, in lieu of telling the truth. He could almost feel the wiry bell laugh of Irisviel against his ear. "Or a new one at any rate."

"What happened, Papa?" She accepted one answer and went straight to another question. Bless her.

Kiritsugu swallowed once more, tasting the ashes of the fire on his teeth.

"The war is not what it should be."

He couldn't say the rest. Not yet. He was doing this out of good will, for the sake of saving lives, but the price remained.

One for a million. A few for a city.

Three for a country. Four for a world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's up! I'll post my other stuff tomorrow. I need to go to bed early to not get sick like mom.


	4. The Heiress Wanders

The crystal swam before her eyes in glorious blue.

At this point, it was Tohsaka Rin's morning ritual to do so, next to wake up on time and make (have the maids show her how to make) a decent meal, kiss her mother on the cheek when she could feel it, and go to school. It was better to do things that way. Otherwise, she would flash back to the grave with the body whose autopsy she had never seen. (Was that body even there?) Kirei had insisted that was a bad idea, but whenever he insisted on something, he meant that he wanted her to do it. She still hadn't.

… Jerk.

She closed her eyes and concentrated once more, gem after gem swirling out of the worn scroll. Deep in her workshop, no one (but Kirei!) would disturb her. She was the only Magus who remained. Even the Association would take care. Who knew how many flunkies had died from exploding into a Workshop? Rin wasn't sure, but it was safe to assume it was a lot.

Still, the workshop was not immune to sound, and thus when a loud bang hit her front door, Rin heard it. Her first thought was to run and answer it, and by reflex, she almost denied it. Being a rational girl, she assumed there were two possibilities: there was an intruder at her door, or the knock was a ruse and someone was going through the back, as no one intruded through a front door unless they were particularly stupid or overconfident.

Then, she thought about it further. Everything that mattered to her was here, including her money and her mother. Well, not her mother but she could be at a moment's notice and unless she decided to come out and call for Sakura, well, things would be fine.

Tohsaka Rin should have learned not to jinx herself but her father never did. So, why would she?

She had also never quite learned how to contain herself in terms of ability so eventually, caution be damned, she went upstairs. As she grew closer, however, she began to sense something. Perhaps it was due to the careful effort of Concealment, but something tickled dangerously under her skin. It reminded her, at least vaguely of the air around Caster at that time… that time that made her body tremble. But she was a Tohsaka. She was the head now. No Mother to shield her… no Sakura to hold her hand. She was the head.

So with all the strength in her limbs and one gem in hand, Rin pulled the door open.

The first things she was aware of were the smells: cigarette smoke, fresh snow, and magic. The second was the sight. She knew upon sight of one: pure white hair and red eyes, ethereal from top to toe. Einzbern. Homunculus. Then the gun, loosely held at the side of the man with the child on his arm.

The third sparkled in her mind. A woman. The winner of the Grail. The Servant of the Champion. She knew from Kirei and even though he lied, it did not benefit him to lie over that.

_Saber._

Her father would have invited them in first. Would have established his ground as territory lord, and done his best to outmaneuver the inevitable game. She did not.

Rin, a child through and through, puffed up her chest and stared right into the dull eyes of the Magus Killer and said: are you here to claim other spoils?

His response was nothing like she expected. "I am here to save you and yours if you'll let me. In return for something you desire."


	5. In the Root Cellar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for Zouken

Sakura was a Matou through and through. She would not betray. That was a fact Zouken Matou knew. Or at least, he assumed he knew. And at the moment, he had no concerns. He had enough time to build upon his plan as he had before. There were amusing distractions, but when you were a mind of insects, anything could be a distraction. But he would return to his tasks. He always did.

At least until Shinji, fool grandson that he was, barreled through the house screaming about an intruder and a gunshot ringing out and possibly knocking the fool boy unconscious. Or dead.

Dead would be inconvenient, but he would manage. He sent his familiars to examine the situation just in case. Of course, they were immediately cut down. Someone was clearly in a hurry.

Zouken couldn't help his smile.

* * *

Rin was not good at not fidgeting.

Ilya was proud to say that she wasn't fidgeting at all! Nope, she just had a very nice coloring book and good markers that were bouncing from finger to finger.

Both girls were doing a very good job weirding out the third occupant of the room, little bandaged Emiya Shiro. Not that that was very hard. He had no basis of normal anymore. Still, he did vaguely understand that two girls shouldn't be this nervous about being alone in a large house with a boy.

Did it count as alone if the last occupant of the house was confined to a wheelchair? He didn't think it did, but she worried him. He had caught her somehow in the garden when she shouldn't have been and her daughter had to wheel her back.

Or maybe it was her constant murmuring of names and endearments when those people clearly weren't there. That brought a strange, ethereal sorrow to his heart. If Kiritsugu hadn't saved him, would he have survived and ended up the same way?

"Who are you, anyway?"

Ilyasviel. Albino, proud, liked his coloring books (which was good because he didn't really. He couldn't follow the lines.) No self-awareness.

"Shiro," he replied from his seat on his futon. The other girl looked at him too. She then looked steadfast at the wall. He wasn't sure how they had been convinced to be here, but they were.

How many kids was the old man going to bring home?

Judging by the very loud boom outside, he was guessing at least one more. The air around the mansion rippled with magic, something he could only really see because he squinted. Little Ilyasviel (who was apparently older than him?) raced to the front, leaving the other girl whose name he couldn't remember following with a deep-set scowl. Well, there was nothing to it, he'd have to go too.

Which he did, and the blond woman who he had met once was blocking the door with a  _super-fast_  sword strike. He couldn't even see the blade.

Kiritsugu was ducking inside, one child under an arm. They weren't really moving, just staying limp barring twitching fingers to indicate they were alive.

"Shiro," he wheezed. "Pour us some tea, will you?"

Shiro, baffled, did as he was told.


	6. A Rusty Chalice

It would be another day and a half before anyone received answers. This time, however, Saber was willing to allow it. Illyasviel had her father back, and two apparent sisters have been returned to rights, or at least their rightful place. But, as she knew from her own life, reality was not a fairy tale. There were no happy endings, at least none you were alive to see.

So when the time came, it was with clumsily built  _ohagi_  and other dishes, rolled out by Shiro himself. Saber had glanced at Kiritsugu in befuddled concern, possibly derision. After all, why wouldn't he do the cooking?

The answer came when Shiro glared down the Tohsaka heiress and waved her out with a ladle in his hand.

"This is my job," he had assured the room, pulling out a spatula in his other hand. "Relax! I won't set the house on fire."

She had glared but left, as if cowed by the concept of a cooking male or the more immediate prospect of food. Saber assumed the latter. That was how she felt about the matter.

But they were, at last, sitting around the table. Sakura sat correctly without a single twitch, and Saber imagined herself under heavy robes for the first time with Excalibur heavy in her small fingers. Perhaps she was going through something similar. Considering her previous failures, Saber is happy to stop that issue in its tracks before it could drive its point home. In opposite, Rin was twitching. Not in poise for the most part, but her hands looked prepared to rip her stockings. She hadn't exactly come quietly, after all. Not after confusing them with Kotomine Kirei.

"Papa." Illyasviel broke the silence in this imperious voice, which was hilarious for a sound so high. Rin twitched again and Saber imagined more projectiles might find their way into the wall again. The thin partitions couldn't handle such defamation. "What's going on, exactly? You've been hiding things for  _days_."

Rin's mouth twitched now.

Kiritsugu looked up from the envelope in his hands. "Only a suspicion of thoughts," he finally said. "Based on what I saw at the end of the War."

Saber's eyes snapped to Shiro, who didn't look befuddled at all, not just yet. When the boy just remained seated beside them to listen, Saber let her gaze return to her current Master. She watched his eyes. They held the same calculation as before, but there's something more to it. Something wistful and young all at once.

"I believe the Holy Grail itself may be cursed," he eventually told them. "I do not bear as much magical knowledge from your forebears. However, I experienced the grail. It, as we were told, offers a wish to who is worthy of it. However, it does not grant that wish. Not in a traditional, and certainly not in a hopeful way. It is, my speculation feels, drawn to the most negative way to answer its call possible. My evidence for this is purely circumstantial, but the vision it gave me…"

For a moment, Emiya Kiritsugu looked haunted and all Saber could envision was thousands of innocent corpses.

Or perhaps, just two. Just his two most important.

Suddenly, she thought of young and angry Lancelot.


	7. The War Game

"That's a lie."

"The participants of the War are dead. Why would papa lie?"

Rin glared at the Einsbern heiress, who was already getting haughty down to a science despite being what, five? Admittedly, while that was a good point, it still made one glaring flaw, and one she'd known about since she'd been aware of the Holy Grail War. Not a very long time compared to Kiritsugu, but of the three Families, the Tohsaka are the ones who have kept the clearest head of the purpose of the ceremony. Somewhat? Likely because they have actually continued breeding but no one would point that out and remain alive, surely.

Rin, specifically not talking to the little homunculi, glanced at Sakura's somewhat stony stare before continuing. She wasn't sure how to… deal with that. So she wasn't going to. It wasn't supposed to be her responsibility. (But it was and she knew it.) "Are you saying it's always been that way?"

"I sincerely doubt that would be the case." Saber barely blinked at the utter speed the child's neck snapped to look at her. "If what he is saying is true." And she's hardly known the man to lie except by omission. (Which was still a lie.) "If that were the case, the first three wars would be much more suspect. But it was this one. So are you saying this one is faulty?"

"I believe it became faulty." Kiritsugu rested his chin on his hands. "The Fuyuki ritual is young by the standards of many in the Association. Two centuries is not as old as any of the shrines on this land, for example. Since sixty years is barely enough to have the mana to summon Servants, to begin with, perhaps there is an immediate flaw in the actual system."

Rin sat back. "You make it sound like there's a bug in the system that's fixable."

"The system itself doesn't make sense." The whole room jumped and looked at Sakura. Sakura only looked back. Her eyes held this strange bafflement themselves, purple hair falling in limp strands over those same eyes. "If all the servants have to die to power the grail, and a servant has to hold the grail, it's impossible to reach anything the families want."

Rin's eyes began to widen with horror, tears straining to well up in her eyes. "It's impossible anyway," she whispered. "All of them died for  _nothing."_

Kiritsugu bowed his head. "I am sorry." His voice was clipped, not with a lack of emotion, she could hear it. Too many feelings. "You needed to know."

"Why?" Saber lifted herself from the table. "Why did we  _need_ to know? Are you planning to do something else, Emiya Kiritsugu?"

"Don't talk about him that way!" Illyasviel hopped from her seat, red eyes narrowed in rage. Saber, however, had seen much worse eyes full of hatred. She had cut them down herself. This would not be enough to make her quail, not in front of the man who had taken her wish apart, and called it now and truly  _worthless._

Kiritsugu looked up at her, also unfazed. As ever. "I'll be quite dead soon enough," he said with the verbal equivalent of a shrug. "They need to know, the heads of these three families. The Holy Grail War will be left to them to fight. Or their children. Or their grandchildren. They need to decide if they want to continue."

Shiro, as if completely oblivious to the universe, poured them all more tea.


	8. The Types of Magic

"Grandfather will decide," Sakura intoned without waiting for the silence to break on its own. "He already has."

"You are not your grandfather," Kiritsugu said before Rin could look up from her tears.

Sakura only blinked, unable to agree. Shiro went over to her, curiously puzzled. "Why don't you think so?" he asked without preamble. Kiritsugu's eyes locked on him with the mildest of alarm.

Sakura shrugged, more a listless stretch of shoulders than actual expression. "He let me go. He will decide to continue. Somehow."

"He will?" Shiro's eyes were still just as puzzled as ever, but then, that was how he behaved. He was more like someone who ruined the mood by not understanding it.

"I have his mag-" Sakura was cut off by a furious looking Rin, who was hugging her close enough it would have hurt if Sakura remembered a life before pain. "N-Tohsaka-san?"

"We'll cut it out!" Her stubborn child voice was something like hope. "I… We'll find a way."

"You have a duty to the Tohsaka family, Tohsaka-san." Sakura's voice trembled as she spoke.

Rin shook her head. " _You_  are my family!"

"F-Your father said I am not."

"Well, I'm the head now, so I say you are! _And that's that._

Saber almost wanted to laugh. This was the logic of children indeed.

Kiritsugu however, did laugh. It was a sound that was almost as baffling to her as a useless war.

Then again, now that she thought of it, all wars were useless.

* * *

Watching children play was a novel experience.

Saber remembered being the one playing with a fond heart.

Admittedly, the mood was sort of dampened by what looked like two of the children  _fighting_ and not playing. Two mages of no longer fighting families in an argument… It likely had plenty of political connotations, but all Arthuria could see were two little girls arguing over the proper placement of chalk. Matou Sakura stood beside young Shiro, the outlier in this group of magical children, as he tried to figure out any of what they were saying. Eventually, Sakura herself started to intervene.

Saber did not. Though they were young, they had to resolve things themselves. How else would they rule even their tiny castles? If they even should.

Saber glanced at her hands, at the stains of blood that no longer even existed anywhere but her addled, mourning mind. She could not imagine any of these children holding castles or titles, let alone use them. In this age of science and chemical warfare, would they even have time?

She could almost imagine Iskandar scolding her for her lack of optimism and heroics. He was such a strange, fascinating man. And he had gone out against one of the strongest opponents she had ever experienced-

Saber felt her thoughts grind to a halt.

Something about Archer – Gilgamesh – made her skin crawl. She couldn't quite put it into words but something related to him. His master. His master had died but he was alive. Something to do with that.

Perhaps, when Kiritsugu was awake, she would be able to ask.


	9. A Deeper Trench

Rin didn't like Emiya Kiritsugu.

Perhaps it was his reputation or the fact that he'd effectively kidnapped them. Or, and most importantly, that he is alive and her father is not.

Alive is very much relative. She's heard the man cough out his lungs and not just because of the rare cigarette packs he smokes at night. It's something else, possibly magical, and likely petty. Not that it bothers him. He's  _too good_ to be bothered by a child's discomfort and rage.

That said, he had brought Sakura back to be with her. And even if that was only temporary, it sure soothed their –her?- mother's strange illusions and thoughts. Sakura didn't really care anymore, but considering the drastic changes to her sister's magic, that would only make sense. And talking about them was rather an insult too, wasn't it? Those secrets. That magecraft. But she had to in order to help.

The problem was that Sakura already didn't want her help for some reason. She preferred to stay in her room, sometimes with a book, but mostly staring up at the ceiling without a word. At least she ate, Rin assumed she slept, but she hardly said a word to her sister so…

Then again, could they really call themselves sisters anymore?

At least she came outside when called. Someone could misuse that. It was probably on purpose.

Rin, sitting on the risen edge of the floor outside the pond, wondered who she hated more, Emiya Kiritsugu or the Matou family. Or even her father. It was very hard to tell.

She was still surprised when Emiya's Servant (was she still his, the war was over?) sat down beside her, as smoothly as if she had grown up in Japan, rather than supposedly over on the shores of Great Britain.

"You are unwell."

Rin couldn't help but wonder if Saber asked questions of anyone but Emiya. She had heard the man say, with seeming affection, that it was a benefit of being a king, which had sent Saber into a strange sort of rage. Or something like it. It had gotten the Einzbern kid into a tizzy, that was for sure.

Oh right, the lady had said something. "I guess," Rin replied, refusing to look at her, to lose.

"Emotionally."

"You don't have to talk like that."

Saber cocked her head to the right, she could feel it. "My apologies. But you are unwell."

"You kidnapped me."

"And your mother."

Was this woman having fun? With her as the fun? "I noticed!"

"And your sister." Saber continued as if she hadn't spoken. "Your family. For the moment."

If they continued this war, then they would become enemies again, even though it hadn't meant to be that way. The Three Families, great and Minor all the same, could have been allies once in search of something. But that something had been lost, long lost.

Did she want to risk it happening again in order to obtain that something?


	10. A Speech of Grandiose Proportions

"I would like to speak with you."

The formal speech of a young magus-in-training was more entertaining than it should have been. Then again, by the time Kiritsugu himself had mastered formal speeches, he had been shooting his master down as she had wished. So there was much less use for it aside from brushing people aside like waves in a sea.

That said, he couldn't exactly ignore one of his charges, therefore Kiritsugu put his book down and regarded Rin with the same amount of seriousness that was in her face. She stepped back, as children did, unable to handle it. Her father must have been like that, only regarding her in equal in things that he  _thought_ she was equal to him in. IT wasn't condescension, not really. It was just believing what he thought was the reality of the universe, rather than acknowledging what truly existed. He wasn't the only one, so it wasn't like it was a poor trait for Tohsaka and Tohsaka alone. HE had done the same with Ilya once upon a time.

"And what would you like to speak to me about?" he asked. He was alone in his room, which was rare enough. Often he was with Ilya or Shirou, or helping with appointments, or scouring the wreckage for the lost injured people, to help them be buried. Perhaps he was looking for Shirou's actual parents.

Rin almost snorted. It was the orphan house here, indeed.

"Do you really think the Holy Grail War will stop without us?"

Kiritsugu paused, the immediate answer springing to mind. Yet he withheld it for a moment because even if it was his truth, it wouldn't be right to just tell her outright. She had to learn the same as anyone else. "No, it would not."

Her mouth opened, and Kiritsugu watched her swallow the very obvious question likely bursting to be spoken. Then Rin lowered her eyes and thought.

"It would make it tougher though, wouldn't it?"

"Without candidates from the original three families? Likely. The Matou are willing to wait until the end of time to reach their goal. Or at least until another viable candidate presents itself. You are the last of the Tohsaka, yourself and your sister. You being absent will hinder it. As for the Einzbern… they are desperate. They wish to follow their creator's will, no matter the cost." He swallowed his spit for a moment. "They did so with Iri. To them, personhood is much irrelevant."

Rin looked at him. "What can we do then?"

"The Clock Tower has observed the business with only curiosity." He waved a hand. "To them, lives that aren't those of magi are frivolous, at best. They turn up their noses at them. Most magi do." He shrugged, and Rin swallowed a lump in her throat. It sounded like what her father had taught her. It even sounded  _sensible._ "The idea of magic trumping science or science trumping magic is irrelevant. They both exist. It's just the matter of which is more dangerous for the current situation."

And currently, Rin mused, magic was the most dangerous.


	11. Cost-Benefit Analysis

"Would you get rid of your daughter?"

It was a quick, question forced to formality, to distance. Like there was distance between magic and person. She was too young to realize that that wasn't true. There were personas, not separate selves. All of it centered towards the self, in the end.

"I already got rid of her mother," he replied to her, with the same amount of speed. Rin froze. "As they wanted."

"Did you want it?"

Kiritsugu looked at her, with those self-assured, empty eyes. Like they'd spent too long in the dark nd had forgotten his irises on the way out. "No, but we can't always do what we want when under contract."

"And you did."

"And I did," he agreed, sitting back. He reached for a cigarette he didn't have and instead sighed heavily. "Indeed I did."

Rin fiddled with her ribbons, wanting to blurt out something but waiting instead, striving for the patience her father had requested of her so many times. Also, Kiritsugu had a look of deepest contemplation, like he was finding the words to say rather than choosing not to say them.

"I would not have gotten rid of Ilya." He straightened in his chair. "Not if there were two children, not if there were twenty. Not even if it was the only thing to be done. Not anymore."

Rin, for some reason, felt herself start to cry.

* * *

Sakura justified her wanderings as memorizing her terrain.

She had not even tried to return to the Matou house. If Grandfather hd wanted her there, he would have said so after all. Perhaps he was dead. She doubted that thought as soon as it entered her mind, intriguing though it may have been. That was about as far as her thoughts and emotions went in regards to reactive. Trying to feel too much would only result in pain of some sort.

Still. It was nice to be in the same house as her sister again and not have to leave for arbitrary reasons.

_Or no reason at all._

She stomped her foot on the wood to physically tamp down the black, black thought. The thoughts that she didn't like, those that came from a rough, terrible place deep inside of herself with a mental image of her father. Of her father's solemn but unyielding figure as she was left with all she had ever owned and then thrown into a dungeon and-

She shuddered by reflex, imagining a squirming worm. It wasn't very difficult. She had experience.

As she walked, however, in an attempt to clear her mind, a stone smacked the pond water.

Sakura looked up to see Shiro throw another stone and watch it sink. Rin was beside him. Her eyes were red and rimmed but her face was set, determined to do something.

They looked up and smiled at her as she approached. Sakura couldn't understand why, exactly, but when Ilya barreled over her and dragged the four of them together in the grass and seemed to be shaking, she did not question it. She allowed it, like a dream that would some day end. One that not even grandfather would be able to take from her.

At least she hoped that was the case.


	12. A King and a Player

Being alone for any stretch of time, while something Saber was used to, was very annoying in modern society. In Camelot, it took either skill or an exorbitant amount of force to make it through the walls, especially alone. It also could take an army. Regardless, it definitely happened, and thus she had to deal with that increased paranoia for weeks on end. This was a rather similar situation, and without any charges to look after, it wasn't any easier. They were all out, even Ilya, though she was with Kiritsugu so she would not go get into trouble by herself. Fuyuki was a very forgetful city it seemed and did not recognize her as partially responsible for its attempted murder. Didn't even seem to care in fact.

This, like it or not, led her to be more paranoid. Hence why she remained in the territory so to speak, despite there being no mages left in Fuyuki that she wasn't already prepared for.

Saber let out a snort of laughter despite herself. No, she could not risk that assumption, seeing as Kiritsugu had forsaken all he had used to do, all he had become, for the sake of the simple family. To think that had once been her choice.

Saber, looking at the sky, supposed Camelot's fall had proven it was correct to do so. Her kingdom would not have flourished in this scientific age.

Now Iskander's on the other hand… that was a terrifying concept.

It was as his name came to mind that one of the many wards rippled and fell away like it had offended some higher power by existing. Saber rose to her feet and drew her sword, a grimace twisting her features. She had a feeling she knew who that was.

"Living with mongrels, I see?"

Saber did not draw her sword, tempting though it was. Gilgamesh, for once, dressed as though he belonged in this time, with a garish black jacket and tattered blue jeans. He looked like a teenager fresh out of school for the weekend.

"Archer," she replied warily, rather than give him an answer. His smirk widened.

"I see you and I are even more alike than I thought." The problem with Gilgamesh was that he acted like every self-assured man all rolled up into one. It was the horrible influence of society, Saber was sure of it. "Are you enjoying yourself here?"

"In a sense," Saber replied, narrowing her eyes into slits. "You contracted with another?"

"I suppose I did. Servants come in handy, as you would know." There was no aggression in how he stood there, merely an ascertainment of something. Territory, perhaps. Acknowledgment of where his enemy took their meals and slept at night. "You destroyed something that wasn't yours," he mused after a few moments of lazily looking about the entryway, likely inwardly mocking how pedestrian it all was. "Because of a human man."

Saber calmly drew her blade. "Indeed I did."

"Shame on you."

"You say those words as if they matter Archer." She didn't blink, ignored the sickening coils of anger in her gut, the guilt-rage that had struck her even now, even though now she knew it wouldn't have changed anything.

He smiled at her, an expression so wildly different from his smirk. "They matter so much more than you know, King of Knights."

Then, as smoothly as he entered, he left, leaving Saber to put the magic wards back together.

For some reason, she did not tell Kiritsugu what had happened. Perhaps he had already known.


	13. Those With A Heart

Emiya Kiritsugu died suddenly, in his sleep, six months after his last serious conversation with Rin. Saber did not feel anything, and that would have concerned her at any other time but now.

Young Emiya Shirou had found him and let out a sound that echoed through the whole building. The sob was single, deep, and long. It opened up a fountain of them, from him, from Ilya, from it seemed the magic of a thousand years of death.

The Servant did not mourn. Instead, she watched her body, waiting for it to fade.

It didn't, not even when Rin ran nearly through her arm with Sakura at unwilling half-steps behind.

For a moment, Rin could not believe her eyes. Death is gore and blood and unwillingness. Death is not a peaceful sleep on your side in a freshly pressed kimono. It's lonely yes, but it's not alone.

Sakura shivered, the sensation traveling up and down her palm. "I…" Rin watched the blank eyes, so accepting of pain, of everything, flicker with something like agony. "I don't think Uncle Kariya died like that…"

For a moment, Rin had to recall, had to remember something like love that didn't exist for most, if not all magi. A friend of their mother, their friend. And he had participated in the war, like Father. Like this man. Like others. They had died. Most of them, if not all of them were dead. It was going to happen again and again until the reason for the Wars was completely gone from the universe. So her children or grandchildren or Sakura's grandchildren would have to fight if she could even have them. The very thought… how could that be? How could they face each other that way across a battlefield?

The magus in her noted that the inevitability of such a thing, the naturalness of it. How if it was for the sake of progress, most anything could be sacrificed.

Could, not would. There was a choice.

With a tear rolling down her cheek, Rin made hers.

Before she could voice it, however, Sakura stepped towards Illyasviel of her own volition. She leaned, quite carefully, to rest her head against Ilya's fully clothed shoulder. Ilyasviel shuddered a deep, full body gesture.

"I knew Mama wasn't going to come back." She wasn't sobbing. In fact, Rin could grudgingly admit to seeing a bit of regal poise in her face that Rin herself might never have. "I was going to have her memories, her love. Inevitably that would mean losing her physically. But he was supposed to bring honor and glory to the Einzbern name, to complete the third magic and recall it to the world. To remember the purpose long forgotten. It's in all of me that I must do this and that Papa would accomplish it. And now he has told me why he didn't. And now he's gone."

She let out a tired laugh. "I think I hate him."

There was no way to respond to that. Sakura did not even try. She just remained there, leaning on Ilya's shuddering shoulder until Rin took her place on Sakura's other side and Shirou, sobbing in a way he probably never would again, leaned on Ilya's other side. Only then did the other girl begin to weep.

They stayed that way, the King of Knights standing nobly on guard until the sun had mostly risen.

Then Sakura went stiff and Saber bounded to the door, armor, and blade materializing in seconds to meet her enemy.

It seemed the farce of peace was over and done with.


	14. The Choices of Children

… Or so she had thought.

What Arthuria faced when she left the safety of the inner house was nothing more than a little boy with blue hair and little mana. He trembled in his schoolboy clothes, trying to sneer and hold his magic up at the same time. It would have been a remarkable feat if it wasn't so pitiful.

The children peeked from behind the doorway, not much of a threat themselves. But it was blatant that this confrontation would be a laughingstock in any war. At best he would be a squire.

Still, she could give him points for the sneer. On his young face it was fairly effective for making people uncomfortable.

"Onii-sama." The boy's mouth had opened and then slammed shut at Sakura's flat, cautious voice. His blue eyes went wide as saucers.

"Sakura! There you are!" In an instant, the boy didn't soften, not exactly, but he eased. As if he had doubted. Had he thought she was dead? Probably, all that Kiritsugu had read and left on the Matou had lost the resemblance towards positivity. Not that the Einzbern or Tohsaka were any better. "Are you done playing over here yet? Your sleepover is getting pretty long. It's time to come home."

Saber didn't turn to see young Sakura's face. She likely didn't have to. "I am afraid that she is not. If you wish to stay for a night, we can discuss permanent new arrangements."

The boy's face shuttered. "I wasn't talking to you."

Saber did not bristle. "You were not talking to your sister, either. You were ordering her."

The boy's puzzled expression was almost worth the biting commentary. It was like talking to a younger Archer (if Archer had even been like this himself in his youth.) "Of course I am." He waved his hands. "Grandfather said so. And he's the leader right now."

"Grandfather is awful."

Saber still didn't look, but she heard the small, frightened sound hidden in small hands. Then, like water from a faucet, Sakura continued. "He led Uncle to die. He did this to me."

"Uncle died with honor for the family!" The little boy parroted, high-pitched and like a sob. "He fought for glory and so should we!"

"With what magic?" Rin stepped closer and Saber could sense a gem, formed from seemingly nowhere. "Do you have any magic circuits? Any spells? If you don't, you'll die faster than you can blink. Father had magic, and he-"

"You shut up!" His face flushed red. "I'm not talking to you!"

"You are talking to  _my sister._ " Rin moved forward and for a moment Saber wondered if this really was Tohsaka Tokiomi's child, who every time she had been in remote range, was equal parts collected and impenetrable. In turn, Tohsaka Rin was flames and rage and rawness. But she was young. She would hopefully not grow out of it entirely. "Your family hurt her magic. Your family made her this unhappy person! You are the reason she is scared and hurt and has given up! She is not returning to you  _ever again_. You can't make her and as her real family, I won't let you!"

With that final word, she threw a gem that had appeared in her hands. Saber watched it crash to the ground just before the little boy's feet like a glass meeting the floor.


	15. An Exodus and Genesis

As someone would do when something exploded, Matou Shinji screeched like a cat out of hell and skittered backward, watching the smoke fly up.

"They're going to call the fire department," Shirou couldn't help but say.

Rin's eye twitched. "I'm doing the best I can here, okay? It's not real flames, it'll only hurt him if he gets too close."

"Uh-huh."

Sakura seemed to be the only child watching the tears run down Shinji's face. Ilya had left already, not interested in the boy. If she was Kiritsugu's daughter, the ideas of a fly like that probably weren't worth considering. Saber shook her head to clear it of those nasty thoughts as Shinji whispered.

"You're just going to leave me with them?"

He sounded frail like the poor boys Saber saw as she rode past on the parades into the castle. Like Mordred, oh so desperate for that loving connection, a connection at all, to the person on the other side. And she had refused, steeped in perfection. Sakura had a much better reason overall to refuse than she.

"You can always come over here, Nii-san." The boredom, the blankness faltered. "You don't have to stay."

"I… I can't." Shinji pulled himself up. "I can't abandon the family. I won't be like you. They need me."

"No, they don't." Sakura stepped into view. "They wouldn't have sent you here if they did. Or… did they send you, Nii-san? Or did you come yourself?"

"Shut up!" He was clutching his chest but the fear had been replaced by anger. "Don't you pity me!"

Sakura didn't speak to this.

"Pity has ensured your survival, boy," Saber finally said, drawing Excalibur to disturb the air. "Now, please take the lady's offer or disperse."  _Or die._ The last thought was distasteful. A true knight disliked the idea of killing children. However, no one underestimated the strength and will of a page with something to prove. Many a horse had been felled and a man crippled by a page with something to prove.

The boy sniveled, turned tail, and fled, disappearing into the gloom of the rain.

There was silence. Then, Ilya's voice filtered from inside the building.

"Papa is heavy! What do I do?"

* * *

Saber, thankfully, called in the closest thing to an adult that wasn't her, the Fujimura family, to help with the last rites. The closest thing the man had to a family was much too young to perform the rites themselves, nor did Arthuria herself want to imagine them cremating him. Too much could go wrong.

She stood by stoically as the children prayed. Even if it was for the sake of formality, the man had ended the Holy Grail War for three children in some sense. There would be people still vying for the simplest solution, to take the most destruction in exchange for their own happiness… much like herself.

Why was she here?

Her first posit had been, her master, reluctantly or otherwise, was still living. Therefore, she was still magically bound to him despite the lack of Command Seals. And now he was dead. So perhaps… what? Was it the murky darkness of the Holy Grail?

Or was it something, someone else?

"Irisviel?" she said to the air.

There was no answer, just the continuous crackles of the pyre and Illyasviel's final, quiet sobs.


	16. For the Sake of Appearances

"School?"

Arthuria nodded at the incredulity on well, one face. Shiro looked merely unimpressed, or what passed for being not impressed on his face. Rin and Sakura merely nodded themselves, one more passively than the other. Illyasviel looked positively horrified. "How?"

"Easily," Rin supplied. "You go in, be smart, and talk to people. And don't use magic when things go badly." There was a smirk at the tail end of her reply. As if anyone could forget the very nice scorch mark that Ilya had accidentally caused at the loss of her hot shower.

"Peasant," Ilya grumbled. However, she could not help but ask, "But why on Earth is it necessary? I won't grow up. For me, it would be pointless."

Neither Rin nor Sakura looked particularly surprised at this information. Shiro looked baffled. Saber racked her brain a moment to figure out why she would not and then sighed. Of course, because Illya was a homunculus, albeit one actually born rather than created. Her lifespan was probably shorter than the rest of the world's, and she would not age much past this point, if at all.

"You cannot spend the rest of your days on the Fujimura's good will alone," Saber finally said. "Your father would want you to flourish."

Ilya pursed her lips in a  _would he really_ sort of way that would be disheartening if it wasn't wholly understandable. And even then. It was a disappointment to see. Then her expression softened. "I suppose that's true. He was always teaching me things."

"As a parent should," Rin muttered. "Even I go to school." She looked at Sakura. "Do you want to go?"

Sakura made to speak and then paused, hesitated. "I've missed a lot." It's the closest thing to an all-out no since that Matou boy had arrived and been prodded on his unmerry way. "I don't know if I would be able to catch up this year."

"I'll help!" Shiro's voice was utter cheer and joy, despite having no idea why she wouldn't be at school. Despite really having no reason to be cheerful at all, really. Saber had to wonder how much Kiritsugu had bothered to tell this young boy aside from 'I am a magus and this is what I do for a living.' Probably not much. He was somewhat absentminded in that sense. Or maybe it had seemed less important than getting the boy out of the hospital. That was plausible surely.

Ilya made a huffing face at Shiro. "I don't need your help! I'm older!"

Shiro stepped back, genuinely baffled and offended. "You are not!"

Ilya's hair seemed to float. "Am too!"

Rin made a face and walked away from them. "Idiots."

Sakura looked curiously between the two of them. Then, as if preparing to duck, she left as well.

Saber, however, settled herself down to watch. It had been so long since she had seen such a peaceful fight anywhere. Nothing permanent would come from this. They would become close, and care for one another, as family ought to do. They would spend the remainder of their years together.

So, with that, she set to work on reading papers. She only had so long before Taiga dropped noisily by.


	17. The Grail's Wish

The summer after Emiya Kiritsugu's death, Arthuria brought herself to visit his grave. Truthfully, she hadn't meant to avoid it for so long. However, when there were four children (and whatever Fujimura Taiga was) in your living space and you had never been anything resembling a parent in your short existence, there was a very steep learning curve to focus on regarding that.

However, they were all in school now. The house ran itself effectively. She had no excuse.

So, she entered the Japanese cemetery with some trepidation. She was surrounded by the ashes of so many dead, so many were dead and it was all her fault in a sense. Just like her homeland. And she had wished to go back and erase it.

She couldn't erase this. Saber didn't even want to try. But she couldn't do any of those things anyway. This was the present day with all of it, all of her mistakes and issues and consequences. All of the universe's mistakes and consequences.

In her time with Kiritsugu, the former King Arthur had come to the conclusion that life was something that you had to live with, for good or ill. It was a nauseating conclusion, but what else could she do? There was no way to actually justify all the nonsense that was comparing the weight of lives. There was only living the one you had without conceit.

And in a way, Kiritsugu had succeeded at such at the very end.

Placing the bouquet on the marker, Saber reflexively smoothed the creases of her suit jacket. "You were an interesting man, Emiya," she told the marker, smiling ever so faintly. "You were intelligent in a way. You were ruthless, cold-blooded, without honor in a stern way. It was… you were impossible to work with, much of the time."

He didn't answer, but the dead did not, as the case would have it.

"You have left me with quite a burdensome few tasks, I must admit. I must find closure, must decipher my own survival, must save your daughter, must keep those children on healthy paths, must keep them from the Holy Grail War… so much to do for a person of some average intelligence."

She scowled at the marker. "How dare you of all people ask me to live, Emiya Kiritsugu. And you are not even asking. You are ordering me, as if you are still my Master, and I a Servant." She tugged on her gloves. "I suppose some things never change."

Arthuria Pendragon almost smiled. "You are lucky I like them, and like a challenge even more."

* * *

Sakura was smiling.

Rin wanted to take a picture but was terrified of doing so.

Her sister was smiling. Her sister was laughing. Her sister was alive with color in her face and friends.

She might not have been if it had been any later, she knew.

Rin let the world go on, sitting back and looking imperious and strong. That was what at Tohsaka was. Not that she didn't want to be with the others. She did, she did. She was just observing. That was all.

"You're  _nervous."_

Rin twitched and her hand reflexively lashed out and smacked onto a blond head. "I am not."

She was not. She was just making a decision. Ilyasviel snorted at her, looking smug with red eyes and clothes that looked like they were for children and not dolls.

"Well, I am."

"You do that by yourself."

Ilyasviel muttered something rude. "I'm going to help you, you know. So be grateful. And so will Shiro and Sakura and everyone else. We will make this work and never fight again."

Rin glanced at her. "Is that your way of being supportive."

"I am doing no such thing," Ilya said with her hands on her hips and a scowl.

Rin only smirked in reply. She did not look at her bag, at the letter sealed with her symbol. She only continued to look at Sakura, her hands curled leisurely over each other.

When Shiro's soccer ball nearly hit them in the face, however, both girls forgot the seriousness of the situation and chased him down the yard.

And Saber, walking past down the road, preferred things that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And a really long one to polish it off. Yes, this is the end of the fic "The Little Chicks". I started this unsure of where it was going to end until I wrote it down. And then it exploded. All of you who followed and favorited and reviewed, for good or ill, I can't thank you enough. I'm sorry that this fic was as confusing as it was. In the following two sequels, yes I said two. More detail about Shiro, the background, Kiritsugu and Saber/Taiga will be revealed in "With Growing Feathers" and the consequences of these kiddos deciding nope, not fighting, in "Fly From the Nest". There might even be a oneshot in there somewhere, called, "Chirping". Gonna make all the bird comments.
> 
> So I look forward to seeing you guys again soon. Thanks for sticking around.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not going to lie, this is pure wish fulfillment on my part. Fun wish fulfillment, but that's what it is. And also because the laws of the entire system are absolutely absurd. So, anyway, please let me know what you think! There will be one to two updates a week just because the fic is almost done anyway. I just want to make sure it's done first and I have nano, otherwise I'd just post it all. Anyway, please let me know what you think!
> 
> Challenges: Diversity Writing (AMF) H27 and CoM Ficlet Competition.


End file.
